The Centennial Range straddles the Montana-Idaho border forming a natural migration corridor for wildlife. Photo George Wuerthner
Due to a recent court decision, the Centennial Range, which lies along the Idaho-Montana border to the west of Yellowstone National Park, is that much closer to becoming a “safe zone” for wildlife.
For decades, […]
Continue Reading →Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Ram. Photo George Wuerthner
Bighorn sheep acquired their name for the large circular horns of the mature rams. They are strongly associated with mountain terrain, particularly steep hills and cliffs, which protect them against predators. They graze upon grasses and other plants. In general, bighorns are associated with […]
Continue Reading →Wild bighorn sheep once were found throughout the West. Roaming high alpine ridges of the Rockies to the badlands of the Dakotas to the deserts of Arizona and California, bighorns were adapted to a wide variety of climates and terrain and some estimate they numbered in two million or more animals.
But these iconic western […]
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Boise, IDAHO – Conservation groups voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit against high-elevation domestic sheep grazing in the “Summer West Range of Centennial Mountains because the government has agreed not to graze again until it completes a full environmental review of the potential impacts of the activity. It has previously committed not to grazing in Summer East Range or […]
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Bozeman, MT. Today five conservation groups Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, Gallatin Wildlife Association and Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation sent the U.S. Department of Agriculture a notice of intent to sue for its failure to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the effects of sheep grazing on the U.S. Sheep Experiment […]
Continue Reading →A fight is brewing over domestic sheep grazing in bighorn sheep habitat in Wyoming. The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance filed a lawsuit last year to protect the small Encampment herd of bighorn sheep from coming into contact with disease ridden domestic sheep which would likely kill the entire herd if contact between the two species were […]
Continue Reading →The Idaho Statesman reports that Mike Simpson has withdrawn the rider which would have prevented the BLM and US Forest Service from addressing the ongoing issue of disease transmission from domestic sheep to bighorn sheep and would have bypassed years of analysis and a long public process which generated 15,000 public comments.
The […]
Continue Reading →This week there have been two significant developments for bighorn sheep in Idaho that relate to the closing of domestic sheep grazing in occupied bighorn habitat.
Payette Decision Moves Forward
First, in an unusual ruling from the bench, Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled that the closing of three domestic sheep allotments on the Payette National […]
Continue Reading →Very bad news from just outside of Yellowstone National Park.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks :: Pneumonia Confirmed in Cinnabar Mountain Bighorn Sheep.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks :: Pneumonia Confirmed in Cinnabar Mountain Bighorn Sheep
Friday, December 09, 2011
Fish & Wildlife – Region 3
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks […]
Fiscal Year 2012 – House Interior-Environment Appropriations Bill – Part 3
Another provision of the House Interior-Environment Appropriations Bill would make it impossible for land management agencies to help bighorn sheep by reducing interaction with disease ridden domestic sheep if it might conceivably reduce livestock grazing. Because of the precedent set by the decision made by […]
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